Hospital Work on the Firing Line 



UNITED STATES field hospitals, 

 the least understood divisional 

 units in the United States army, 

 have been newly equipped in order that 

 they may be more mobile during battle. 

 The field hospital service of our army, 

 as it is constituted today, is one of the 

 best in the world. 



Contrary to popular opinion, field hos- 

 pital men are trained soldiers. They do 

 their most important work under fire, 

 and in war, their dead and wounded rank 

 next to infantry in number. While 

 the officers of field hospitals are surgeons 

 and while the privates have been in- 

 structed thoroughly in first aid work, 

 the real duty of the field hospital men 

 during battle is to keep the front clear 

 of savable wounded men. The field hos- 

 pital problem is one of rapid transporta- 

 tion. During the past four years, since 

 the system conceived by Tripler during 

 the Civil War has been put into opera- 

 tion, every scheme to make it possible 

 for field hospital officers and men to 

 work swiftly has been resorted to. 



Officers and men of the hospitals 

 are walking dispensaries. The officers 

 carry surgical instruments, extra hypo- 

 dermic needles, needles, ligatures, medi- 

 cines, first aid packets, large iodine bot- 

 tles, large water bottles and cups, diag- 

 nosis tags. During battle the officers can 

 spend little or no time in dressing wounds 

 or in "cooling the fevered brows" of 

 fallen soldiers. Their time is occupied 

 in directing the bearer-men, or littermen, 

 who carry wounded soldiers to the field 

 hospitals just outside the line of fire. 

 While doing this transportation work, the 

 stretcher bearers are really more under 

 fire than the fighting soldiers. 



The new equipment furnished the 

 field hospital men is as compact and as 

 light as possible. Each man carries a 

 meat can, a bacon bag, knife, fork and 

 spoon, a water bottle, ten first aid pack- 

 ets, iodine swabs, five plain gauze ban- 

 dages, safety, pins and adhesive plaster, 

 corrosive sublimate gauze, diagnosis 

 tags and pencil, a large water bot- 

 tle, instrument cases, forceps, scissors, 

 and a hatchet. The enlisted men are 



thoroughly trained in the uses of the in- 

 struments they carry. When they have 

 time, they administer first aid treatment 

 to wounded men, but if they are pressed 

 for time in the heat of battle, they devote 

 all their energy to getting savable wound- 

 ed men to a point where they may be in 

 comparative safety while awaiting sur- 

 gical treatment. 



The men are taught that their work is 

 to protect Uncle Sam's fighting mate- 

 rial. They are not permitted to spend 

 any time at the front with fatally wound- 

 ed men, but to strain every nerve in 

 saving wounded men who can be patched 

 up to fight again. No nurses are per- 

 mitted at the front. They are at the 

 base hospitals, usually out of range 

 of the enemy's guns. It is possible to 

 take down and pack up on mule-drawn 

 ambulances the entire camp equipment 

 of a field hospital in two hours. 



Ordinarily, that is, in time of peace, 

 the camp tentage of a field hospital is 

 as follows : five small pyramidal tents 

 for officers, nine large pyramidal tents for 

 soldiers, five tropical hospital tents for 

 kitchen, stores, mess, dispensary and op- 

 erating room, six ward tents each con- 

 containing thirty-six beds, and tents for 

 officers', patients', and men's latrines, 

 with one for the men's bath. In field serv- 

 ice the large pyramidal tents are not car- 

 ried, and one thousand four hundred and 

 ninety-eight pounds of weight are saved. 

 No tent furniture or cots are carried. 



The field hospital equipment for serv- 

 ice weighs eight tons and is transported 

 on eight four-mule wagons, which are 

 used for ambulances. The army is now 

 experimenting with motor cars to sup- 

 plant the mule-drawn ambulances, since 

 a similar equipment serving with the 

 American Ambulance on the French 

 front has proved remarkably successful. 

 Fifteen horses — seven for the officers, 

 two for the major, and eight for enlisted 

 men — go with the field hospital equip- 

 ment. The organization carries three 

 days' rations, three pounds to a man, or 

 eight hundred and ten pounds, and one 

 thousand three hundred and sixty-eight 

 pounds of forage for the animals. 



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